The Monterey Jazz Festival internship is offered each year from mid-August to mid-September. The work focuses on the production of every aspect of the festival under the guidance of Monterey Jazz Festival staff. We’ll follow Sue leading up to, during and after the Festival to get a sense of what life is like as an intern at one of the longest running and most well-known jazz festivals in the country.*

This was an unpublished post from this morning, before work:

When I first went to title this page, I thought of that Adelle song, but realized that I wanted to say the exact opposite. I’m too tired and lazy at this point to find a cleverer title to say “now the hard stuff begins.”

Truthfully, I don’t feel that way yet. We’ve got a week before craziness begins here – next Monday the volunteers show up to sort t-shirts and credentials, and that schedule should be sent out by the end of the day…dammit, I’m late on that one. But it’ll be fine. Anyway, things will really start rolling at the end of this week, I feel. Again, I just wish there was more for me to do. But this week I’m going to make myself work. It’s going to be homework time – listening to all the bands and acts performing so I can get a good sense of what we’re in for at the festival.

Also, time to memorize the schedule and map of the fairgrounds! I want to be able to answer patrons’ questions about who, what, when, where and why as quickly as possible. I wouldn’t be able to forgive myself if I went through this experience as just a lack-wit intern, not bothering to integrate myself into the experience or glean any lasting knowledge. Now I don’t know what lasting knowledge can come from memorizing the fairgrounds map….but that’s not the point. The point is I’m really tired from labor day weekend still, and I need to gear myself up for this last leg of normalcy before the crazy begins! GO TIME!!

Today I plan on finishing and sending out the volunteer schedules, and wrapping up whatever spreadsheet work Bill needs done. I’d like to compile a list of the work I’ve done so far, just to see an overview of what goes into the fest only end, and on the production end that comes before spreadsheeting and cleanly organizing data. The brainstorm stage if you will. The essentials for organization stage, even…indeed!

*Reposted with permission from Sue Buzzard

Bio

Sue Buzzard is a warrior of the acoustic string music revolution. Following her studies in classical and jazz music techniques in her hometown of Buffalo, NY, she studied a plethora of violin sounds at The Berklee College of Music.

Sue graduated with a double degree in Violin Performance and Professional Music in the spring of 2010, and has since been performing and seeking more ways to bring string music to the masses through production and education. Sue is on faculty at The Rivers School Conservatory in Weston starting this fall, where she will teach Jazz Violin.